UVALDE, TX | Between tears and hugs, the emotion was palpable in front of the Robb primary school in the small town of Uvalde yesterday which mourns its victims in the aftermath of the tragedy which left 21 dead, noted The newspaper.
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“I grew up opposite primary school, I went to this school, my children and my grandchildren go to this school, and I can’t believe what happened”, drops Zinna Aguilera , 61, met in front of the establishment which was the scene of yet another deadly shooting.
Photo Clara Loiseau
Zinna Aguilera, 61, lives opposite the school where she studied.
For her, it’s hard to imagine that on Tuesday, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos burst into it with an assault rifle, barricaded himself in a classroom and started shooting at 8-10 students. years, and two teachers present, before being shot dead by the police.
“It’s such a quiet town. We all know one or unfortunately several victims, we have seen them grow up, ”she says, her throat tight and not taking her eyes off the school, which has become a symbol of the madness of firearms. fire in the United States.
Photo: AFP
A woman comforts a young girl during the vigil last night in memory of the victims of the shooting.
Yesterday, this small town of 16,000 mostly Hispanic inhabitants, far from everything, in the middle of ranches and endless green spaces, saw hundreds of citizens take turns until the darkness to collect their thoughts. They came to bring flowers, stuffed animals, inflatable balloons and their support to the families of the victims, but also to the very shaken community.
Photo: AFP
Manda Welch gives a bouquet of flowers to a policeman to leave outside the school, where the investigation continues.
First flight
On board the flight from New York to San Antonio, Texas yesterday, a man told the Log moreover having done everything to be able to return home after learning that a shooting had broken out in the school that his two children attend.
“Tuesday was the worst day of my life when I learned there had been a shooting. For three hours we didn’t know where my daughter was and my son lost friends in this tragedy,” he explains between sobs.
Hundreds of kilometers
Citizens of the state came out to show their support. This is the case of Ana Ferrante, 19, Cici Richardson, 20, and Mariana Parra, 20, friends who have driven for hours from San Antonio.
Photo Clara Loiseau
Ana Ferrante, Cici Richardson and Mariana Parra drove for hours to show their support.
For Ms. Parra, it is time for the government to put in place clearer guidelines and laws to prevent this kind of tragedy, which sadly recalls that of Sandy Hook in 2012, from repeating itself.
“It’s not normal that even today we can go and buy weapons of this type, when we are not allowed to drink, smoke or go out in a bar. It doesn’t make any sense,” she blurts out, admitting that she doesn’t think the guns are the problem, it’s the men who use them.
A solitary but aggressive teenager
The shooter was being bullied and had a fondness for guns
Although the reasons that led Salvador Ramos to carry out this bloody massacre in a Texas elementary school are still unknown, this 18-year-old loner is portrayed as a victim of bullying, who had a difficult family life and who could succumb to violence. Here’s what we know about him so far.
ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Minutes before the shooting, Ramos wrote to a German teenager he met online that he “just shot her grandmother in the head”, according to screenshots of the Facebook conversation obtained by CNN. In a second private message sent a few seconds later, he told her that he was going to shoot at a primary school.
Four days before the killings, Ramos showed off his new weapons in fleeting photos on Instagram. A year earlier, the shooter posted pictures of automatic rifles on his wishlist on social media, according to the washington post.
BULLYING AND AGGRESSIVENESS
From the start of high school, students would pick on Ramos, make fun of his clothes or make crude references to his mother or sister, depending on what a former friend – with whom he shared a passion for games video – told the New York Times.
Ramos had also been bullied because of his stuttering and lisping. In response, he once cut his face with a knife “just for fun”, the washington post another old friend.
He also had a habit of throwing eggs at vehicles, shooting random strangers with an air gun and throwing dead cats at houses, acquaintances told various US media.
DIFFICULT FAMILY SITUATION
Ramos had “a pretty difficult life with his mother”, according to a neighbor interviewed by the washington post. He said he saw police at the house and witnessed bickering between Ramos and his mother on several occasions. Several relatives claimed to have heard them insulting and shouting, especially in videos posted on Instagram. The shooter had moved in with his grandparents a few months ago.
NEW WEAPONS
A few days after his 18and anniversary, Salvador Ramos legally purchased two AR-15 type assault rifles – the most widely used weapon in mass killings in the United States – and 375 rounds from authorized retailers in the Uvalde, Texas area .
The shooter’s grandfather, Rolando Reyes, told ABC News that he had no idea his grandson had purchased such guns and that they were in his home. Since Reyes has a criminal record, it is illegal for him to live in a house with guns. He claimed he would have reported his grandson if he had known.
SCHOOL AND WORK
Ramos had in recent months stopped regularly attending his high school in Uvalde, Texas, so he had not been able to complete his studies days before the tragedy. Instead, he worked at a Wendy’s restaurant, where he was the “quiet, not-so-so-saying” type. He didn’t really socialize with the other employees,” a branch manager told CNN. “He was sometimes very rude to the girls and a cook, and he threatened them,” pointed out to the Daily Beast a former colleague.
Gun Madness
The newspaper invites you to follow its reporter Clara Loiseau who arrived in Uvalde, Texas last night to explore why Americans, and especially Texans, are so attached to their guns and this spreading culture everywhere on the continent, to the streets of Montreal.
Why are Americans so attached to the Second Amendment to their Constitution, which guarantees citizens the right to own arms, even though their country has been afflicted with more mass killings since the beginning of the year than the number of elapsed days. More than 17,000 Americans have died by firearm so far this year.
Texans, in particular, have almost unlimited access to firearms from the age of 18. We will also attend this weekend the annual convention of the National Rifle Association, the very powerful pressure group that campaigns for the right to own and carry a firearm, even the most dangerous ones like the one that was used in the killings. by Uvalde.